U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), who previously served as the lead White House physician under both President Trump and President Obama before being elected to Congress, is urging President Biden to undergo testing for “performance-enhancing drugs” prior to Thursday’s presidential debate.
Jackson served on the White House medical staff for 14 years, spanning the administrations of Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump. He served as Physician to the President under Obama and Trump, with Trump creating the office of Chief Medical Adviser to the President and appointing Jackson as its inaugural officeholder.
“During that time, I took care of all three of the presidents and, you know, on a day to day basis. I also, you know, I also was the director of the White House Medical Unit and the appointed physician to the president for both Obama and Trump. So I kind of feel like I know exactly what’s required on a day-to-day basis, both mentally and physically, to do the job of president of the United States,” Jackson told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday.
He also explained that he’ll be submitting another letter to the White House demanding that Biden submit to a cognitive test. “Maria, I don’t need to tell you, I don’t need to tell your viewers or anybody else in this country right now that we have a serious problem here. Everyone knows it now. You don’t have to be a physician. You certainly don’t have to be a physician to the president and see what’s going on right now,” the former White House doctor said.
“So I have sent five letters previously asking for President Biden to submit to a cognitive test, very similar to the one that President Trump got while he was president. And all five of those letters have gone completely ignored. So tomorrow I’m sending a letter to President Biden, to his physician, Dr. O’Connor, and I’m CC’ing his entire cabinet,” Jackson continued, describing it as an “embarrassing” necessity.
“But we don’t have any choice based on what’s going on. But I’m going to be demanding on behalf of many millions of concerned Americans right now that he submit to a drug test before and after this debate, specifically looking for performance-enhancing drugs,” Jackson continued.
“Because we see, we’ve seen recently in a State of the Union address that there was a Joe Biden that came out that was not similar at all to what we see on a day to day basis for the last three and a half years. And there’s really no way to explain that other than he was on something, that they’d give any medications,” Jackson said.
Trump and Biden are set to face off Thursday in the first of at least two presidential debates scheduled before election day. Moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper, the debate will include several stipulations demanded by the Biden campaign, such as cutting a candidate’s microphone if they exceed their allotted time and having no audience present.